Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Five: Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

So after years of meaning to read Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, the true story of a library cat in Spencer, Iowa as written by his loving library director, Vicki Myron, I decided I would listen to the audiobook by way of having something cheery and wholesome to enjoy while in my car.  In this regard, Dewey was an excellent choice!  A quick listen (only four discs long), this memoir of an abandoned kitten's transformation into a well-loved and world-famous library cat is heartwarming without ever quite veering over the edge into sentimentality (though it sometimes comes perilously close).  Like any cat, Dewey gets up to plenty of antics, and this book is peppered with them, which cat-lovers will surely appreciate.  It was definitely worthwhile to violate my general ban on books with animals on the cover to listen to this one.  Now obviously, if you're looking for a deep and serious work of Great Literature, Dewey is not the book for you, but if you're already pre-disposed to having your heart warmed, look no farther than Dewey.

Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Four: Vinegar Girl

So Vinegar Girl, by Anne Tyler, is a modern retelling of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew (one of my favorite Shakespeares, incidentally) from Hogarth Shakespeare, a publishing company committed to commissioning modern retellings of all the Shakespeare plays.  Many elements of The Taming of the Shrew had to be adjusted to make sense in modern context, and it was interesting to see how Tyler chose to do so.  I particularly liked her choice to reimagine the reason for Kate's marriage as a plot to get her father's research assistant American citizenship since his visa is about to expire.  While many people may dislike The Taming of the Shrew as an example of misogyny, I've never read it that way.  (I'll email a copy of my tenth-grade English essay to anyone who wants to know why, upon request, but basically I've always seen it more as a commentary on the importance of behaving kindly, for both women and men, although I can certainly see how it could be interpreted as a play about the proper (ie subservient) role of women.)  Anyway, Vinegar Girl is quite short and what it lacks in sweetness (not that sweetness is altogether lacking) it makes up for in humor.  I found the end both satisfying and slightly discomfiting--an odd combination, to say the least, but I won't say more for fear of spoiling the book.  If you enjoy The Taming of the Shrew, I definitely recommend checking out Vinegar Girl, or if you're just looking for fiction that's both entertaining and thought-provoking, give Vinegar Girl a try.

Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Three: Crosstalk

Okay, so it's actually been a month since I read Connie Willis's newest book, Crosstalk, and I really, really loved it!  But I wanted to wait just a bit to write about it to try to filter out my sheer giddy pleasure at reading it and say something even a bit sensible.  But why be sensible?  Let's be giddy just for a moment (or for most of this review) and reiterate that it's just the best book and that everyone should read it immediately!
Okay, now, to business.  Crosstalk is the hilarious tale of a young woman, Briddey, who in the very near future lets her boyfriend talk her into getting a new procedure done that allows the people in a couple to sense each other's emotions.  But as soon as she's had the procedure, Briddey finds to her horror that, instead of sensing her boyfriend's emotions, she's hearing the thoughts of one of her coworkers--and he can hear her, too!  And of course, chaos ensues.
I almost literally could not put this crazy, suspenseful and all too believable book down, devouring it in record time and thoroughly enjoying every second of it.  I haven't been so excited about a new book since J.K. Rowling's/Robert Galbraith's last mystery was published last fall--and when will the next one appear???--and that's about the highest praise I can offer to any book or author.  If you're looking for a funny book that will hold your attention and leave you feeling good, definitely read Crosstalk, and then recommend it to everyone you know!